The Daily Populous

Monday January 19th, 2026 night edition

image for Elon Musk’s xAI datacenter generating extra electricity illegally, regulator rules

A US regulator ruled on Thursday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company had acted illegally by using dozens of methane gas turbines to power huge datacenters in Tennessee.

At one point, up to 35 of these generators were powering Colossus 1. xAI eventually received permits for 15 turbines at Colossus 1 and is now operating 12 permitted machines at the site.

They say the datacenter, which sits a few miles from historically Black neighborhoods, has been adding extra pollution to already overburdened communities.

For xAI, which makes the chatbot Grok, the turbines are necessary to supply additional power to its huge supercomputers.

At full capacity, xAI’s Colossus 1 datacenter uses 150 megawatts of electricity – enough power to run 100,000 homes – and the company plans to expand.

Musk set up Colossus 1 in just 122 days during the summer of 2024, record time for getting a datacenter up and running.

According to Mississippi Today, the datacenter has 59 generators; 18 of those are considered to be temporary and do not have air quality permits. »

Sniffing Your Own Farts Could Protect Your Brain and Prevent Alzheimer’s, No Joke Science Has Proven It

Authored by indiandefencereview.com
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Though the idea of sniffing your own farts sounds more like a joke than science, the results point to a serious link between hydrogen sulfide and brain cell health.

The condition gradually destroys memory, affects physical movement, and can lead to hallucinations or extreme anxiety.

According to the study, hydrogen sulfide, the same gas responsible for the smell of farts, could help regulate the processes that lead to cognitive decline. »

Korean researchers find way to remove nanoplastics from water in 10 minutes

Authored by koreaherald.com

The team said its process eliminated more than 95 percent of micro- and nanoplastics within 10 minutes by using plate-shaped iron-oxide magnetic nanoparticles.

The approach targets plastic fragments too small to be captured by conventional filtration and sedimentation, which allows them to spread through aquatic ecosystems and potentially accumulate in the human body.

Led by Chung Sung‑wook, the researchers replaced commonly used spherical magnetic particles with thin, plate-like ones. »

Russia welcomes Trump's tariffs on NATO allies over Greenland as 'collapse' of alliance

Authored by kyivindependent.com
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Trump earlier said that Washington would impose 10% tariffs on NATO allies — France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Finland — until the U.S. reaches a deal to buy Greenland.

He threatened the tariffs just days after European forces from France, Germany, and other countries began arriving for exercises in Greenland.

Trump has insisted that NATO would become "more formidable and effective" if Greenland were under U.S. control, a claim European leaders have rejected. »